1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to navigation among objects in a networked environment. More particularly, this invention relates to the establishment of connections between a networked portal and external information sources.
2. Description of the Related Art
TABLE 1Acronyms and AbbreviationsABAPAdvanced Business Application ProgrammingAPIApplication Program InterfaceEISExternal Information SystemsJ2EEJava 2 Enterprise EditionJCAJ2EE Connector ArchitectureJDBCJava Database ConnectorJMSJava Message ServiceJNDIJava Naming and Directory InterfacePRTPortal Runtime Technology
Portal-based network environments have become increasingly important, particularly in large enterprises having a diversity of computer systems. For example, such environments can now be implemented using SAP NetWeaver® portal technology, available from SAP AG, Neurottstraβe 16, 69190 Waldorf, Germany. This technology supports integration and application platform requirements, and facilitates the development, deployment, and administration of enterprise services. NetWeaver portal technology uses specialized browser portlets, called “Iviews” to incorporate essentially any kind of application, information or service that can be rendered in a Web browser frame. NetWeaver portal technology also provides users with the capability of navigating among Iviews using a Web browser, and thereby obtaining coherent, portal-based views of enterprise data. Additionally, NetWeaver portal technology facilitates the creation of new computer-implemented services for the enterprise.
In addition to providing tools for creating and managing enterprise services, NetWeaver portal technology provides administrative capabilities to enable its users to access external data sources, which are backend systems, sometimes referred to herein as “external information systems” (EIS). In order to enable a seamless connection, a data source template is used to match the characteristics of the external information system and the portal. In the NetWeaver development environment, this is known as a “portal template”. It is generally necessary to define a matching portal template for each type of external information system that is being accessed. To further facilitate the connection between the portal and the external information system, NetWeaver Portal technology provides a specialized architectural feature, known as the NetWeaver Connector Framework, which operates under the J2EE™ platform.